By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
FEDERAL Labor’s new leadership process has revitalised the party following a crushing election defeat in September, according to several ALP Casey Cardinia branch members.
The rule changes, endorsed by the Labor caucus in June, split the vote for leadership in half between caucus and grassroots members, giving the 44,000 rank and file supporters a chance to vote for former deputy prime minister Anthony Albanese or former education minister Bill Shorten.
All ALP branch members can vote in the ballot if they were a Labor member before the federal election on September 7.
Winsome Ashcroft-Thom, a Labor branch member from Berwick, said her peers were left feeling disenfranchised after the election but were buoyed by the new leadership process and their ability to vote.
“We felt like we had no control, that our ideas haven’t gone through to politicians. Not Federal Government but also state and council,” Ms Ashcroft-Thom, voting for Mr Shorten, said.
“It’s good to get a vote.”
Robyn Hale, a member from Upper Beaconsfield, praised the new leadership voting rules for acknowledging members.
“We all attend branch meetings and I wonder how much our message gets through,” she said.
“But now we get to physically vote which empowers members.”
Ms Hale, who also will be voting for Mr Shorten, said if the ALP wanted to move forward they needed to show compassion towards refugees.
“I don’t believe the Abbott Government will do that and I don’t think the ALP have done it as well as they could have,” she said.
“The Labor Party has to get back to principles.”
Rosalind Spencer, from Hallam, has been an ALP member for over 13 years and said her vote would be going to Mr Albanese.
“I think he can get the job done. I think Shorten’s time is not quite now, he’s still a bit young,” she said.
“Albo would be a great opposition leader and could even get us back in.”
Ms Spencer said a key influence for her decision was Mr Albanese’s compassion.
“The single parent pension is a big deal and Rudd and Albo both come from a family that struggled, they both had single parents,” she said.
“They understand compassion and welfare, in that respect.”
John Conlon, a branch member from Berwick voting for Mr Shorten, said the new voting process had energised the party but that it now had to shift some of its focus to small business.
“I went to the town hall meeting with Bill and Albo and what Bill said was more inspiring,” he said.
“Bill is committed to reforming the party, making it more open and more inclusive of (the) grassroots.”
Turning to local battle grounds, Mr Conlon said it was too early to predict a Labor candidate for the seat of La Trobe and that there had been no clear standouts for the seat won by Liberal MP Jason Wood last month.
Ms Ashcroft-Thom said La Trobe was always on a knife’s edge but Labor could re-claim it.
“I’d like to think that next time Laura Smyth can win it back,” she said.
“She worked hard for the last three years.”
